Leftist Intellectuals

The problem with the Obama administration and leftist governments throughout the world is their philosophy is shaped by intellectuals, who have been in universities for years, writing papers and discussing ideas with other intellectuals. Almost all of these people have never worked a day in their life outside of academia. Almost all of these people have an idea, that they are smarter than everyone else, know everything and can't learn anything from another person who hasn't received tenure in another university. This prevents liberal intellectuals from seeing what is plainly right in front of their face. They are so absorbed in theories and ideas as to how something should work, they miss the reality of how things do work in the real world.

For example, leftist intellectuals run around talking about the glories of "wealth redistribution," "fairness" and "cultural relativism." But the fact of the matter, what these people can't face is that everything is not equal to everything else. This is a basic truth, that is easy to see if one simply opens ones eyes. But these people are looking at large books that talk about life instead of simply observing life.

Let's take taxes. Obama is a proponent of raising taxes and wants to raise these, both on individuals, including middle class individuals, and on businesses. This is an idiotic idea as it punishes productivity. And during a recession, more incentives are needed to become successful. The Government should be taking less money and leaving more money to the private sector to innovate and create jobs. If we implemented DEEP cuts in corporate and personal income taxes, if we got rid of the capital gains tax, if we cut out most of the stifling business regulations, which serve only to employ bureaucrats, we would have a job boom like we haven't seen in the last 20 years. Companies would take the savings, from not having to comply with stupid regulations and the savings they would achieve by not having to pay burdensome taxes, and hire new workers. As more workers were hired and the total number of unemployed workers diminished, the value of each worker would go up, which would generate an increase in the standard of living of these people. The fact that both businesses and individuals had more money to spend would generate a surge in demand for consumer goods, which would create even more jobs. If you reward something, you have more of it. If you penalize something you have less of it. These aren't complicated, difficult to grasp concepts. Yet, for whatever reason, leftists don't seem to be able to understand these simple truths.

The next thing that intellectuals love to complain about is "class and racial inequities." This is another area where liberal intellectuals can't see the truth that is staring them in the face. Inner city schools are absolutely awful. Children are graduating who do not know how to read and write. They don't know even the basics, when it comes to geography and are lacking in the other subjects as well. Obviously, not all children who go to these schools show this shocking lack of knowledge. But many of them do. And it is not lack of money. My late grandfather worked on a farm. He only went to third or fourth grade. Yet his literacy level was greater than many college graduates today. He didn't rely on the welfare or other government program to take care of my mother, my aunts and my uncles. He worked hard. Very hard. He had several jobs and did whatever he had to do to make sure that his children were provided for. And this was during an age where there was rampant and widespread discrimination against Blacks. He didn't believe in excuses, he just believed in making things happen through hard work and persistence. He is an inspiration for me today. The inner city schools don't suffer from a lack of money, they suffer from something that the liberal Democrats have in spades. The racism of low expectations. If you don't demand excellence, if you don't expect for people to excel. If you allow bad behavior, if you use something that ended nearly 150 years ago, slavery, as an excuse, you will end up with what you have today in so many inner city schools. Political correctness, which the liberals said would help protect the minority community, has destroyed it. You need to only look at Detroit to see the affect of over 20 years of liberal control. A destroyed city. And I don't hate the teachers. I think that many of the teachers are doing the best they can under the circumstance. But the problem is the system. And the system should eventually be disbanded. Yes, we do need schools. These schools should be free. However, they should be under local control and not under state or federal control. Parents should be given vouchers, good for any school, public or private. The money should be allocated to the schools based on how many students are attending. The free market will weed out underperforming schools, they will go out of business. Successful schools will flourish. And that is the way the world works. The people who work hard and produce what they need to produce will flourish, those that don't will not. That is the way the world works. For example, if a company is producing TVs and the TVs don't work, that company will not be in business long. And it is so obvious to see, yet many intellectuals are unable to perceive this basic truth.

Last topic, for now. National defense. Leftist intellectuals run around proclaiming that everything would be OK if we simply stopped interfering with other countries. If we simply cut defense spending. If we simply respected the Muslims. Blah, blah, blah. Well, none of these ideas are realistic. They work great when someone is sitting around Yale or some other elite university, never in real life. The fact of the matter is, there are people around the world, primarily radical Muslims and Leftists, how hate America. They hate America becuase it stands for freedom. They hate America because it is the most just and tolerant country in the world. They hate America because it stands in the way of their plans to make an opressive society, where people would have no rights, no fugure, no hope. That is why they hate America. Fascists, Communists, Nazis and radical Muslims hate us because of the ideas of freedom, tolerance, equality, which America stands for around the world. They hate us because most of us our religious. America is inperfect, all countries and peoples are inperfect. There are a lot of things that America has done that are wrong. But the good things are much more plentiful than are misdeeds. And America is the most free country in the world. People here have more rights and opportunities than anywhere else. Leftists love to criticize the West. They look at all the problems the West has. Yet they fail to face the fact that, with all of the problems the West has, we are still far, far better than the alternative, living under a communist / fundemantalist Islamic state. The basic problem is that leftists compare the West to an unatainable ideal instead of doing the sensable thing and comparing existing countries to each other and seeing which ones are more free compared to ones that are more opressed. If they simply did this, they would realize that the West, with all of its flaws, is still better than the rest of the world. And while I don't think we should encourage war, in fact we should do everything possible to avoid war, the fact of the matter is sometimes wars are needed. Sometimes there are rogue countries that can only be stopped by force. Our dislike and fear of war should not prevent us from applying force when it legitimately needs to be applied. The best way to avoid war is to have lots and lots of weapons, a large military and a willingness to use them. These things are deterrents to wars. These things make diplomacy more effective.